i am brand new, to the photograpy world. as most, i've been taking pictures for years, but starting a family has encourged me to want to take better quality photos. i am looking for a good bridge/super zoom around $300 to start out with. i will be using it to take pictures of my son, the family, and for vacations. i want a camera that has good image quality on auto, but has the controls because i intend to learn.

i've been looking at the Nikon Coolpix P100 and Panasonic Lumix FZ40 as both are going for about $300 right now. my brother-in-law has the P90 and i thought it was a good camera and the images looked good as well. i've read reviews for both, but still can't decide which to go with.

i would appreciate any assistance the community may have between these two or a better option in the price range.

i have p100 and i tell you: don't buy it, canon and panasonic have much better models at the same price.

what's better: high iso (on p100 iso 800 is a pass if you have tolerance for low detail), canon and panasonic should shoot raw pictures while nikon doesn't, no possibility for external flash on nikon, my nikon thends to overexpose pictures very often (this could be the fact that i still dont know how to use it so well but could be the camera)

what's good: as far as i have seen has good video mode, and is very good for learning to shoot on p s a m modes since it is very easy to use with nice question mark button to explain the stuff in menus.

overaly you can take nice pictures with p100 but if i had a second choice i would go with canon or panasonic.

oh 1 more thing, if try the cameras in hand and see witch one feels best, (the most obvious recommendation)

Thanks for the comments. I ordered the FZ40 last night. Amazon has it for $299 and I was able to get $300 worth of Amazon gift cards for $250. I essentially got it for $250 which seemed like a good deal to me.

I looked at the sx30 review and from what I could tell, there wasn't a big enough difference in features (for my experience level and needs) to justify a $100 price difference.